Justification of Cyber Harassment Among Turkish Youths

INTRODUCTION

The issue of violence and the media and their effect on individuals are important phenomenon in media theories and research. The phenomenon of violence, which can be triggered or normalized by the interaction between the individual and society, is examined and discussed not only in the media context but also in many other disciplines in terms of different variables. Although, there is not a single factor that affect the phenomenon of violence; developments and improvements in media tools and technology have now caused violence to be discussed in different dimensions.

In this book, justification of cyberbullying will be analyzed in depth in terms of social media usage, cyber-harassment and emotional deafness (alexithymia), which are among the factors that will cause individuals to perceive violence as legitimate through communication tools, on individuals’ perception of violence as a legitimate is discussed. For the second part of the book the research that conducted at Turkey with university students will be presented.

Considering the opinions in the literature that situations such as excessive internet use and excessive time spending in social media cause social isolation of individuals, the relationship between emotional deafness and exposure to violence in the media and seeing violence as justified has aroused curiosity. Normalizing violence and seeing it as a legitimate right are two concepts that have blur line. Excessive exposure to any stimulus, especially in the media, can lead to desensitization and emotional deafness. But there will of course be a difference between normalizing a phenomenon and seeing it as a legitimate right. It is thought that the fact that individuals in society see it as a right rather than being desensitized to the phenomenon of violence will pose a danger not only for the sociological structure but also for the justice system.

The phenomenon of violence in the media has been examined in a wide range from movies, characters in series, behaviors, violence in video games to pornography, harassment and rape in the internet environment. In this book, the phenomenon of media and violence was evaluated within the framework of gaining legitimacy in the context of cyber-violence and alexithymia (emotional deafness) among Turkish Youths’ and the effect of information literacy on this.

The conceptual and theoretical part of the research is divided into two parts. In the light of the studies conducted in the literature, the effect of media and technology on individuals is mentioned in the second part of the conceptual part of the research. This effect can be positive as well as related to how violence in the media drives individuals’ behavior in the long term. In this context, deindividualization effect, belief-in-a-just-world concept and “General Aggression Model” were evaluated as a guide in terms of examining how violence in the media shapes individuals and society in general.

In the last part of the conceptual part, it is tried to reveal the effect of violence on the alexitimia (emotional deafness) and legitimization of cyber-violence in new media, how individuals become desensitize in the intense bombardment of violence and how they perceive cyber-violence as a legitimate right and at the same time justify it.

In the second part of the book the research that conducted with Turkish University Students (400 students) will presented.